Concrete by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)116
editions published
between
1982
and
2013
in
16
languages
and held by
1,383 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Instead of the book he's meant to write, Rudolph, a Viennese musicologist, produces this dark and grotesquely funny account of small woes writ large, of profound horrors detailed and rehearsed to the point of distraction. We learn of Rudolph's sister, whose help he invites, then reviles as malevolent meddling; his 'really marvelous' house, which he hates; the suspicious illness he carefully nurses; his ten-year-long attempt to write the perfect opening sentence; and, finally, his escape to the island of Majorca, which turns out to be the site of someone else's very real horror story. A brilliant and haunting tale of procrastination, failure, and despair, Concrete is a perfect example of why Thomas Bernhard is remembered as "one of the masters of contemporary European fiction" (George Steiner)

Frost by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)142
editions published
between
1963
and
2014
in
11
languages
and held by
1,369 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Frost follows an unnamed young Austrian who accepts an unusual assignment. Rather than continue with his medical studies, he travels to a bleak mining town in the back of beyond, in order to clinically observe the aged painter, Strauch, who happens to be the brother of this young man's surgical mentor. The catch is this: Strauch must not know the young man's true occupation or the reason for his arrival. Posing as a promising law student with a love of Henry James, the young man befriends the mad artist and is caught up among an equally extraordinary cast of local characters, from his resentful landlady to the town's mining engineers

Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)164
editions published
between
1967
and
2013
in
11
languages
and held by
1,285 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Early one morning a doctor sets out with his son on his daily rounds through the forbidding moutainouse countryside. Their visits, a succession of grotesque portraits- a diabetic industrialist living in incestuous isolation with his half-sister; three brothers, occupying a mill set in a deep gorge, who have just strangled a bevy of exotic birds; a crippled musical prodigy whose sister locks him in a cage- lead them to a castle and a paranoid prince, whose 'almost uninterrupted monologue for a hundred pages is a virtuoso verbal performance ... an extraordinary, somber first novel

Extinction : a novel by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)120
editions published
between
1986
and
2014
in
17
languages
and held by
1,282 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
In Italy, an Austrian teacher devotes his energy to criticizing his family's noble heritage--its snobbery, hypocrisy, Catholicism, Nazism--but when on his parents' death he returns to take over the country estate, he does not practice what he preached. By the author of The Loser

The lime works by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)122
editions published
between
1970
and
2014
in
10
languages
and held by
1,270 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
For five years, Konrad has imprisoned himself and his crippled wife in an abandoned lime works where he's conducted odd auditory experiments and prepared to write his masterwork, The Sense of Hearing. As the story begins, he's just blown the head off his wife with the Mannlicher carbine she kept strapped to her wheelchair. The murder and the bizarre life that led to it are the subject of a mass of hearsay related by an unnamed life-insurance salesman in a narrative as mazy, byzantine, and mysterious as the lime works'Konrad's sanctuary and tomb

Korrektur : Roman by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)70
editions published
between
1975
and
2014
in
7
languages
and held by
1,231 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Roithamer, a character based upon Wittgenstein, has committed suicide having been driven mad by his own frightening powers of pure thought. In the course of this novel the reader witnesses the gradual breakdown of a genius senselessly compelled to correct and refine his perceptions until he kills himself

The voice imitator by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)93
editions published
between
1978
and
2013
in
13
languages
and held by
1,069 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
One hundred-and-four parables, none longer than a page. The title story is on a voice imitator who can impersonate everyone's voice but his own, The Prince is on the disadvantages of longevity, while Emigrated is on a man who cannot stay in one place. By a late Austrian writer

Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)69
editions published
between
1984
and
2013
in
17
languages
and held by
978 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Fiercely observed, often hilarious, and "reminiscent of Ibsen and Strindberg" (The New York Times Book Review), this exquisitely controversial novel was initially banned in its author's homeland. A searing portrayal of Vienna's bourgeoisie, it begins with the arrival of an unnamed writer at an 'artistic dinner' hosted by a composer and his society wife'a couple he once admired and has come to loathe. The guest of honor, a distinguished actor from the Burgtheater, is late. As the other guests wait impatiently, they are seen through the critical eye of the writer, who narrates a silent but frenzied tirade against these former friends, most of whom have been brought together by Joana, a woman they buried earlier that day. Reflections on Joana's life and suicide are mixed with these denunciations until the famous actor arrives, bringing an explosive end to the evening that even the writer could not have seen coming

The loser by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)104
editions published
between
1983
and
2013
in
20
languages
and held by
814 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
In 1953 three friends, among whom is the later to be famous Glenn Gould, study with Horowitz. Rarely sleeping, hardly eating, they burn intensely with the flame of ambition. Gould achieves success, while the two others renounce their ambition in strikingly different ways

Heldenplatz by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)99
editions published
between
1988
and
2013
in
13
languages
and held by
796 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Polemische toneeltekst over de Oostenrijkse volksaard

Ja by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)69
editions published
between
1978
and
2013
in
10
languages
and held by
775 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide

Amras by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)82
editions published
between
1964
and
2013
in
8
languages
and held by
483 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
In een Tirools dorp gaat een gezin aan zelfmoord ten onder

Der Weltverbesserer by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)30
editions published
between
1979
and
2014
in
6
languages
and held by
481 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Over the course of a day he looks forward to receiving an honorary degree while reflecting on his life and engaging in dysfunctional banter. Combining absurdist comedy with an astute satire of academic pomposity, The World-Fixer ultimately gives a moving portrait of simple human frailty."--BOOK JACKET

Die Erzählungen by Thomas Bernhard(
Book
)52
editions published
between
1966
and
2009
in
German and Undetermined
and held by
413 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide